The government should stop manipulating the Department of Information and instead use it for its intended purpose of sharing information with the public, the Opposition said yesterday.

Nationalist MP Clyde Puli said the government was using statements by the DOI to launch attacks on the Opposition.

At least eight statements released last month included attacks at the Opposition, he said.

This was a far cry from the transparency promised by the Labour Party before the last general election.

“There is no other democratic country that uses a government department, like the DOI, paid by taxpayers, to attack the Opposition. This is the department of information and not the department of opinion,” Mr Puli said.

The worst attack, he said, happened last Wednesday, when a statement issued by the department lashed out at PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami.

It was unacceptable that statements by the government on political arguments initiated by the Opposition were followed up by DOI statements, Mr Puli said.

“There have been several cases where the government uses DOI statements, intended to give the public information, to comment on issues that the Opposition would yet have to address. In these statements, the Opposition or its members are dragged in, attacked and outright lies are spread.”

Mr Puli added that in some cases, the Opposition was labelled as “extremist” and “negative” even though it had yet to issue its comments.

The Labour Party was caught in a “time warp”, living in the past and still completely unaware that it now had governmental duties, Mr Puli said.